THE MARGRET M. AND PAUL B. BALTES AWARD LECTURE AND PRESENTATION

Abstract The Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Award Lecture will feature an address by the 2022 Baltes Award recipient, Eric S. Kim, PhD, of the University of British Columbia. This session will also include the presentation of the 2023 Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Award to recipient Reuben Ng, PhD of the National University of Singapore. The Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology recognizes outstanding early-career contributions in behavioral and social gerontology. The award is generously funded by the Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation.


HEALTH CARE SETTINGS: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS HEARING LOSS
Margaret Wallhagen, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States Background: Identifying hearing loss (HL) within the healthcare system is essential to mitigate its risk for associated negative psychosocial and health conditions, including isolation and depression yet is rarely assessed.This qualitative study sought to gain in-depth understandings of how HL affects communication regarding care preferences within the older adult-partner dyad in the context of chronic illness.Its premise was that older adults with HL may not be able to participate effectively in care discussions and are at risk of not receiving patient centered care.Method: Planned as in-person, pandemic restrictions mandated transition to zoom.15 older adults (≥60) with HL and 13 partners participated.Results: One key story line evolving from the data is "Compulsory Self-Advocacy".Almost uniformly, participants reported that healthcare practitioners "Never Asked" about HL.During one-on-one communication, HL wasn't necessarily brought to the surface and often went unnoted because participants didn't see it as pertinent to issues discussed.Still, they were unsure the practitioner was aware of their HL.Rather, they asked that information be repeated or noted they had trouble hearing or understanding when they realized problems.Reporting their HL didn't generally result in on-going consideration of their specific communication needs.They had to self-advocate to obtain accurate information or bring their partner to appointments to help.Some commented on the value of policies mandating access to notes or written reports.Conclusions: Healthcare settings provide unique opportunities to identify HL and initiate interventions that may mitigate its negative effects, including social isolation and loneliness.

EFFECT OF HEARING INTERVENTION ON LONELINESS AND SOCIAL ISOLATION IN THE ACHIEVE STUDY Alison Huang, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Social health interventions in older adults typically have small effect and limited large-scale implementation.Treating hearing loss is a potential intervention, but efficacy is unknown.This study presents baseline associations between hearing loss, loneliness, and social isolation as well as the 3-year effect of a hearing intervention on social health.The Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders Study (ACHIEVE) randomized controlled trial (n=977) tests the effect of hearing intervention (provision of hearing aids/ related technologies, counseling/education) vs. successful aging health education control intervention on loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale) and social network characteristics (Cohen Social Network Index) (pre-specified exploratory outcomes) among older adults with untreated hearing loss.Hearing loss was quantified by better ear, speech-frequency pure tone average (PTA).Speech-in-noise recognition and hearing-related quality of life were also measured.Baseline associations between hearing loss and social health outcomes are assessed by robust Poisson regression adjusted for demographic and health characteristics.Three-year hearing intervention effects are assessed by generalized linear mixed effects models.Participants were 70-84 years, 54% female, and 87% White.At baseline, better speech-in-noise recognition was associated with greater social network characteristics (e.g., larger social network size [IRR: 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.07]).Worse hearing-related quality of life was associated with higher prevalence of loneliness (PR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.20) and smaller social network size (IRR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.93, 1.00).Hearing intervention effect results will be available prior to the conference (data collection ends early 2023).Hearing treatment could be an effective social health intervention with greater scalability.

SESSION 2140 (AWARD LECTURE)
Abstract citation ID: igad104.0533The team is comprised of 2 clinicians (a hospitalist physician and a physician assistant), a nurse manager, 5 registered nurses (RN), a social worker and a pharmacist.The program practices complementary HIH (admissions from inpatient care) and substitutive care (all other admissions).At this time, majority of the recruitment comes from the inpatient services, followed by heart failure and primary care clinics.The program catchment area is about 25 miles from the West Roxbury campus of VABHS.A hybrid visit approach is taken for clinician visits -initially, the veteran is seen in person or by video by the clinician on admission to the program.Subsequent visits are done with RN assessments in the home and the clinician conducting the visit by telephone or video.In FY 2021, conditions of patients treated by HIH include congestive heart failure (50%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (14%), wound care (6%), diabetes (2%) and other conditions (20%).In FY 2022, the average daily census was 15.9 veterans and average visits per day 4.8.The HIH program outcomes include reduction of bed days of acute care in the hospital and reduction in the use of unnecessary medications through deprescribing which may translate to cost avoidance for the medical center.

THE MARGRET M. AND PAUL B. BALTES AWARD LECTURE AND PRESENTATION
Abstract citation ID: igad104.0537The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital-In-Home (HIH) program offers Veterans the option to receive intensive, institutional-level acute services in their homes.This study presents characteristics of Veterans across 11 HIH programs operating between fiscal years 2021 and 2022.VHA administrative data and Medicare claims were linked to identify HIH stays from HIH visits, extending a

THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS HOSPITAL-IN-HOME PROGRAM: A BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Chair: Shannon Jarrott THE BOSTON HOSPITAL-IN-HOME PROGRAM-A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE Shivani Jindal, Brittany Pietruszka, Rachel Meears, and James Parris, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts, United States The Hospital-in-Home (HIH) model provides patient centered care, may reduce complications and costs.VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) planned its HIH program in 2018 and enrolled its first patient in May 2019.HIH provided care to 45 patients in 2019 which grew to 185 in 2022.